IISc gives Rs 10 lakh to widow of blast victim

Bengaluru : The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) paid Rs 10 lakh compensation to Anusha, widow of researcher P. Manoj Kumar who died on Wednesday when a hydrogen cylinder exploded during an experiment in the aerospace department laboratory, the state-run Institute said on Friday.

"The Institute has released Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the widow of the deceased who died in the Hypersonic and Shockwave Research laboratory during an experiment," said the Institute in a statement.

Kumar, 32, was project engineer of Super Wave Technologies Ltd, a start-up incubated in the Institute and promoted by its two aerospace professors, G. Jagadeesh and K.P.J. Reddy, in 2013.

Three other researchers who were with Kumar in the lab and were injured in the blast are also employees of the start-up. They are recovering in a private hospital.

A team from the Institute, led by its Director Anurag Kumar, visited the injured at Ramaiah Hospital. They are Naresh Kumar, Athulya Uday Kumar and Karthik Shenoy.

In a related development, the police have booked a case against Jagadeesh and Reddy, who co-founded the start-up, on a complaint filed by Institute's Security Officer S. Chandrashekar.

"We are waiting for the injured to recover to record their statement as they were in the lab when the gas cylinder exploded while an experiment was on," a police official told IANS.

The police sealed the lab and collected evidence from the spot.

"We have interrogated the two professors and the lab members to find out what experiment was being conducted and safety measures taken for it," added the investigation officer.

According to Institute's sources, the experiment was on studying the pressure variations of gases like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and helium when hypersonic waves are passed through the instruments containing them.